Vera Xia Jingyi 夏靖宜
Photography
La Petite Mort / 小小的死亡
Days of Judgement / 审判日
The Nocturnal / 夜行动物
Untitled Movies / 无题电影
In the Mood for Love / 花样年华
Vera Xia / Xia Jingyi
夏靖宜
Email: vera.xia.art@gmail.com
Instagram: @vera.xia
Vera is a photographer, cinematographer, and documentary filmmaker based in Beijing, China. She was born in Yiyang, Hunan Province, in 1999. She earned her BA in Photography from Bard College in 2021.
Vera’s approach to photography is embodied and phenomenological. To Vera, the camera does not just record her “seeing”, but also her physical and mental being in time and space. She uses photography as a tool for meditation, philosophical, and spiritual quests. She mainly works with film cameras, from 35mm point-and-shoots to a 4x5 large-format view camera. She works mainly with black-and-white film, using it to construct a photographic reality that is surreal and otherworldly. Her recent research interests include the intersection of spirituality and quantum physics. She is currently working on her new book with a quantum physicist and a theologian.
Her work has been exhibited in various photography and art shows in cities including New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Changsha, and Chongqing. In 2020, her matchbox photography collection "THE NOCTURNAL" was published by HAKUCHI. This series received acclaim, winning the "Kunpeng Award" at the 2021 Pingyao International Photography Festival from the China Young Photographers Promotion Program. Additionally, it earned a Special Recommendation Award from judge Lin Zhipeng, also known as "No. 223, “ at the "Chiri Photography Festival.
After Bard, she pursued cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. Since then, she has been working as Director of Photography, Production Designer, and still photographer. She started her documentary production studio, YOUTHPIONEER, in 2022. Her independent documentary "Where You Look 2023" was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Award at the 2024 ARFF Amsterdam International Film Festival; “Town Nexus” was a finalist for the 2025 Globe Award, ARFF Amsterdam.
As a translator, she has translated for symposiums and lectures by various artists and writers like Stephen Shore, Gregory Crewdson, Xia Pengcheng, David Company, and Fred Ritchin, contributing to photography education in China and global artistic communication.
夏靖宜是一位常驻北京的摄影师、电影摄影指导，纪录片导演。1999年出生于湖南省益阳市。2021年在美国纽约的巴德学院摄影系获得学士学位。
Vera的摄影创作融合具身感知与现象学思考。对她而言，相机不仅记录“所见”，更承载着她在时空中的身心存在。她将摄影视为冥想、哲学与精神求索的工具。她主要使用胶片相机进行创作，涵盖从35毫米傻瓜相机到4x5大画幅相机等。她偏爱黑白胶片，并用此构建一种常带有超现实的异世感的摄影现实。近期她的研究聚焦于灵性与量子物理学的交叉领域，目前正与一位量子物理学家及一位宗教艺术学者合作撰写新书。
她的作品曾在纽约、柏林、东京、北京、长沙、重庆等城市的摄影及艺术展览中展出。2020年，其火柴盒摄影集《THE NOCTURNAL》由HAKUCHI出版社发行。该系列广受好评，于2021年平遥国际摄影节“中国青年摄影推广计划”中荣获“鲲鹏奖”，并在“迟日摄影节”获得评委林志鹏（编号223）的特荐奖。
自巴德学院毕业后，她进入北京电影学院学习电影摄影。此后开始从事摄影指导、美术指导及剧照摄影师工作。2022年, 她成立了记录片工作室YOUTHPIONEER，其独立纪录片《目之所至2023》入围2024年阿姆斯特丹国际电影节（ARFF）最佳纪录片奖；另一部作品《棚场计划》则入选2025年阿姆斯特丹ARFF环球奖决赛名单。
作为翻译，她曾为众多艺术家和作家（如斯蒂芬·肖尔，格雷戈里·克鲁森， 夏鹏程, 大卫·坎帕尼，和弗莱德·里钦，）的研讨会和讲座进行翻译，为中国的摄影教育和国际艺术交流做出了贡献。